The Scarlet Letter

         The Scarlet Letter  was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this novel, he is depicting the life during the American Romantic Era. He had found a manuscript of the non-fictional story about the adulteress and by adding fictional aspects he created The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne incorporates the dark and gothic American Romanticism in this story. An example can be when he described the prison door. "Like all that pertains to crime, it seemed never to have know a youthful era"(Hawthorne 43). The prison door is old, scary and gothic. It has spikes in it. It does not belong in that area. The prison door looked like it belonged in another era. This description puts the reader into a dark and mysterious mood. It presents the Gothic theme perfectly.
          Another example that goes along with the American Romantic Era theme is when the judges give the penalty to Prynne. "The penalty therefore is death. But in their great mercy and tenderness of heart, they have doomed Mistress Prynne to stand only at a space of three hours on the platform of pillory and therefore, for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom"( Hawthorne 54). At this moment, the reader is thinking, they are going to kill her. Instead, they made her stand on a platform, all eyes on her. She had to wear a scarlet letter on her chest. She had become an outcast.  I think she is very brave, because she stayed and she is living through this harsh situation. But what does not make sense to me, why not kill her? Did someone stop them or the did the reverend feel guilty? This give a sense of a dark, yet twisted romantic story. I can not wait to read on. (which is our homework, which of course I am going to do :} ).